Fondant Cake

 

It was our 4th Wedding Anniversary on 4th May. I wanted to make a really special cake. Since I wanted to keep the decoration very simple I decided to go with Ganache. This cake is really rich & a tall cake. Well my USP is tall cakes. I love tall cakes coz you can get to taste a big chunk with various flavours. More over the tall cake looks very beautiful compared to the regular ones. Since I dint want too much of chocolate flavour I decided to add in Strawberry mousse filling in one of the layer (click for recipe Strawberry Puree).

All my Mousse cakes are egg less & I follow my never fail simple recipe. Although this is a 6 inch cake it can serve around 20 people. I must tell you that this cake is Incredible... its so tasty that you just cant eat just one piece. I swear I must have gained 2 inches in the last 2 days. I must have eaten at least half portion of entire cake. It is definitely a sinful indulgence. Well if this Sin is so delicious I don't mind to commit this sin again:) Well I had no intention to have any cake topper but since my hubby was in a conference call on 3rd night I decided to utilise this time to do some decor:) The figurine outcome is not so good & I really dint have the patience to do it well. It was already 12 in the night & I was just doing time pass with the fondant.

Making assembling & decoration this cake is a long process.  Beginners in Cake decoration might find it a lill difficult. I have tried my best to explain it in simple words. I hope you will try this & enjoy. BTW my 2 year old Toddler just loved this cake & I have posted a video of his:)

Step 1: Chocolate cake Recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup Cocoa powder
• 1 Tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tspn Baking soda
• 2  eggs
• 70 gms Butter
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4  cup hot water
• 1 Tspn Lemon Juice
• 1/4 Tsp salt

 Method:

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 6-inch round baking pan.
2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder in large bowl.
3. Cream the Butter sugar with a electric beater.
4. Add eggs one at a time and vanilla. Add in the dry ingredients & Mix the hot water. Beat this for another 2 minutes until the batter is smooth
5. Pour batter into prepared pan & bake for 45 to 55 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in centre comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Now cut the cake into 3 layers & frost with chocolate mousse.

Note: This cake will turn out really tall about 6 inches.

 

 

Step 2: Chocolate Mousse Recipe

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 Cup melted chocolate (Good quality semi sweet chocolate)
• 1/2 cup Icing sugar
• 1 Tbsp Gelatin or 1/2 Tbsp of agar agar (Mix this well in 1/2 cup of hot water)

Method:

• Beat the whipping cream to soft peaks, fold in the melted chocolate & agar agar into it. Refrigerate it for about 1 hour until its all set.

 

Step3: Strawberry Mousse recipe

• 1/4 cup of Strawberry Puree
• 1 cup Heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup Icing sugar
1 Tbsp Gelatin or 1/2 Tbsp of agar agar (Mix this well in 1/2 cup of hot water)

Method:

• Beat the whipping cream to soft peaks, fold in the Strawberry Puree & agar agar into it. Refrigerate it for about 1 hour until its all set.

 

Step 4: Chocolate Ganache:

• 2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 tbsp butter

 

Method:

1. Bring heavy whipping cream to a rolling boil & turn off the stove.
2. Add in the chocolate chips & butter to the cream mixture. Let it rest for 5 -10 mins.
3. Once the chocolate chips are melted well stir it well with a spoon or a whisk.
4. Allow it to cool in room temperature for about 8 hours or Just refrigerate for 2 hours.
5. Now the consistency of Ganache will be right for frosting

 

Step 5:Assembling the cake:

1. Cut each cake into 3 layers
2. Fill each layer with 1 inch Mousee filling.  I used Chocolate mousse for one layer & Starwberry for another.
3. In case you have extra mousee you can crumb coat the cake with it. Keep this in the freezer for abour 1/2 hour to set.
4. Now remove & frost the cake with Ganache. Smoothen the Ganache well & again freeze it for 1/2 hour.
5. Now you can decorate the cake with fondant or you can have it just like that
 

Step 6: Homemade Marshmallow fondant Recipe

· 250 gms Kraft Marshmallow

· 4- 6 cups icing sugar

· 2 tbsp water

· Green edible gel color
 

Method:

1.    In a microwave heat marshmallow with 2 tbsp of water for about 1 minute or 2, until its all melted.

2.  Remove the Marshmallow & add in icing sugar to it & make smooth dough. Add in any colour of your choice.

3.  Once the fondant is ready cover it with a zip lock bag & let it rest for at least 10 minutes. Now it is ready to use.

Strawberry Mousse filled Cake

Today is my Maid "Mary's" Birthday. Its going to be a year tomorrow since she has been with us. She has been a great help to our family. She is just 24 but already a mother of twins who are 5 years now:) In Filipinos being a mother at very young age is quite common. It was a very tough decision for me to chose a maid here in Singapore, because have heard a lot of stories about their character. Last year I interviewed many maids & some how found Mary to be the right one for our home. In fact I had made a right choice of choosing her I guess:).  She is a good girl & comes froma good family background, My important condition was that she needs to take very good care of Zion & that is being done without doubt. Zion loves her & they share a good chemistry. I dont treat her like maid but have treated her like a family member. She gets to eat all that we eat. I make sure that she is comfortable & support her whenver she needs any financial help. Afterall she is just like us.

I know of many people within family & friends who treat their maids as slaves. I have even seen people not giving them food to eat ,abusing etc.. I feel so sad to see & hear of such news. I strongly feel that what you do is what you get back. If you take good care of them they will take good care of u. Ah... I think too much gyan on Maids:) Now coming back to the Birthday celebration. I baked chocolate cake & filled it with fresh Strawberry mousse. I did a very simple decoration with whipped cream. We just cut the cake & had it now after Breakfast. For some reason the Strawberry was tasting like Guava:( I couldnt feel much of Strawberry taste in the cake. Nevertheless the cake tasted good! This is how I made it.

I have devided this into 4 Steps

1. Chocolate cake recipe- Step1
2. Mousse filling recipe- Step 2
3. Decoration recipe- Step 3
4. Assembling the cake- Step 4

Step1
For chocolate cake
Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar (Powdered)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup Cocoa powder
• 1 Tspn baking powder
• 1/2 tspn baking soda
• 3 eggs
• 75 gms butter
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4  cup hot water
• 1/4 Tsp salt

Method:

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 9-inch square baking pan.
2. Cream together butter, sugar, egg yolks, vanilla essence for 2 to 3 mins.
3. Now sift all the dry ingredients & add it to the wet ingredients.
4.  Add the hot water to this mixture & beat it on medium speed for a minute
5. Beat the egg white to soft peaks & fold in the egg whites into the cake batter with a spatula. Arounf 6 to 8 folds should be enough. Do not over mix.
6. Pour batter into prepared pan & bake for 30 to 45 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Now cut the cake into 3 layers & frost with Starwberry mousse.
7. (I made a small cake so I cut the cake into small square & made 4 layers of cake & 3 layers of mousse filling)

Step2:

Strawberry Mousse filling & decoration

 

Ingredients for Mousse

• 1.5 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 cup fresh chopped Strawberries
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1/4 tspn of salt
• 1/4 cup Icing sugar Sifted
• 1 Tbsp Gelatine (Mix this well in 1/4 cup of hot water)

 

Method:

1. Beat the whipping cream to stiff peaks along with icing sugar.
2. In a blender add in the strawberries & sugar. Make a Puree out of this & set aside.
3. Now mix the gelatine into the starberry puree & mix this to the whipped cream. Use a spoon or spatula to mix this well.
4. Now refrigerate this for about 2 to 4 hours for it to set. Once its set you can fill the cake with this.

 

Step-3

Ingredients for decoration.

• 1 Cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 cup Icing sugar
• Method:

1. Beat the whipping cream to stiff peaks along with icing sugar.
2. Once they are done fill a piping bag with this & use any piping tip to decoration. I used the big star tip for this simple decoration.

Step- 4

Assembling the cake:

• Cut each cake into 3 layers 
• Fill 1 inch mousse on top of each layer evenly with a help of spatula.
• Once all the layers are done, Use the whipped cream to decorate the outer layer of cake.

Here is my Maid "Mary" with zion

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#27